Did you know our annual PAIN YOURSELF WITH SUBMISSIONS contest ended already? Apparently, it ended almost two weeks ago. And I apologize its taken me so long to get this written up, but its just been hard to find the time to give this the full attention it deserves (more on that later). Enough of my rambling, lets get down to business and announce those winners! We'll start off with the winner of the donation drive. And that winner is YOU! Because everyone wins when someone donates, without those crucial donations, we literally can not exist. Even though we are non-profit, our server host is most definitely not. But I did offer a prize to the individual donated the most during our donation drive, and the winner of that prize is none other than Razor Knuckles, who donated an astounding amount, more than anyone since I've been in charge of the finances around here at least. I won't disclose here how much exactly he donated, I'll let him do that if he so wishes. And of course, there's the matter of who won the PAIN YOURSELF WITH SUBMISSIONS contest. The winner of that contest is our very own Not-So-Secret Santa, Zagnorch! He not only won the submissions contest, he destroyed the contest, raking in more than twice as many points as the second place member, Flee. Who, in turn, got more than twice as many points as third place ae.tc. Good job guys, you kicked butt this year. And a big thanks to everyone who participated in the contest, you're all winners in my book.

As for the prizes, as it turns out, its a little harder to come by a pair of 1990 NWC carts than I thought, so I'll have to make a little substitution to the prizes for our two winners. Luckily, I never mentioned specifically which gold colored NES cart would be the prize, so no harm no foul, right? So Mr. Zagnorch and Mr. Knuckles, send me a PM with your address and your prizes will be on their way as soon as possible.

And finally, I have one more little announcement. After nearly 5 years, I will be stepping down as Site Director of RFGeneration. Now, it has nothing to do with an affair, scandal, or anything like that. My life has just become too busy for me to make this site a priority, and that's what it needs to be for a Director. So rather than just stick around making people wait on my response to things, I'm simply taking myself out of the equation so the remaining Directors can efficiently keep the site running. Now, I won't be leaving completely, I'll still be around on occasion, just on more of an unofficial capacity. In lieu of a retirement gift, you can make a donation to webmaster@rfgeneration.com

The 2013 Pain Yourself with Submissions Contest ended the other day, June 8th, to be exact. That date is the day this wonderful site went live to the public nine years ago. So Happy Birthday RFGen!So now you're probably wondering why when the contest ended on the 8th, it has taken 5 days for me to post this. Well, the reason is simple, we just wanted Crabmaster to sweat it out for a few extra days to see if anyone could out-submit him in the last few days of the contest. And unfortunately for him, I'm going to make him wait a bit longer by announcing the other top ten before saying who got the #1 position.

Its that time of year again! Time to PAIN YOURSELF WITH SUBMISSIONS! Yes, that's right, its contest time, where you can win awesome prizes, including an RFGeneration T-shirt and a game of your choice! Isn't that nice of us? We think so, but we do it for you guys, for all the hard work you put in through the year to make this site so awesome. Our veteran members are probably very familiar with how the contest works, but for all the new members, the basic premise is very simple. Just be active on the site, get points, and if you accumulate enough points, you win! That's the gist of it, the details are a bit more complex.

*Regarding the asterisk: For page edits, if it is noticed that you are consistently only adding one field per edit multiple times for a single title just to up your points, you will be disqualified. Any review or overview completed will count as a page edit as well the points for an overview or review. To get the points for an overview or review you MUST contact me via Personal Message so that I can keep a tally. In addition, the review or overview must be on the actual game / hardware page. A review or overview of poor quality could result in less points than stated being granted. The same statement holds true for blog posts.

Regarding Forum Karma: Because we want the forum to be a lively place of fun and interesting posts, we're enabling Karma during this contest. Karma rewards members that make good posts and smites those who do not. Your Karma will play a wildcard role in posts. Positive Karma at the end of the contest will increase your point total by a factor, while negative karma will decrease it.

As with any contest, there is fine print. Any submission that you make must adhere to the RF Generation Policies and Guidelines. We wrote these policies and guidelines for a reason, and well, we’d like everyone to adhere to them. Failure to adhere to the guidelines could result in a disqualification.

Any point reduction or disqualification can be contested. In the event that you wish to contest, you must explain why the reduction or disqualification is unfair. If you win the contest, we’ll restore your greatness, but if you lose, you shall be pelted with figurative rocks and garbage.

Everyone, except for the directors of this site, is in this contest. Because staff members get that extra point for each submission review, and those staff members will have thousands of submissions to review in addition to their own submissions, their total score will be halved to make things a bit more fair and lively.

So now that you know all the rules and have the scanner warming up, you probably want to know what you can win. Well, don't worry, its quite a substantial prize. The winner will receive their choice of gaming swag (not to exceed $60) plus an official RF Generation Ringer T-shirt!

The contest will begin on April 28th at midnight Eastern Time and will end on June 8th at midnight Eastern Time. There will even be an announcement post at that time so even if you're outside the Eastern time zone, you'll know exactly when to start submitting.

So get that scanner fired up and start stockpiling scans and submissions!

The results are in for the record setting 2012 PAIN YOURSELF WITH SUBMISSIONS contest. This year's winner really went above and beyond the call of duty, but he wasn't alone at the top. There was a close second place contestant that truly gave him a run for his money. As usual, the winner focused heavily on image submissions, something of which we always appreciate greatly. 5,575 images were submitted by this member alone through the course of the contest. Along with the other submissions this person made, they earned a staggering 55,945 points. More than 2,000 more points than last year's winner!This year's second place winner submitted a close second place point total of 39,152.

So you're probably what awesome members we have that would submit like mad men to achieve such greatness here at RFGeneration. So, without further ado, the 2012 PAIN YOURSELF WITH SUBMISSIONS Contest winner is .... Aeroc. This is Aeroc's third year in a row of winning the contest. So a big Congratulations goes out to him for this achievement. Everyone here at RFG appreciates your dedication.

So who was the valiant RFG soldier who fought so hard in his attempt to topple Aeroc this year? It was Crabmaster2000 of course. He made a solid attempt, but just came up short. I heard he's already healing his carpal tunnel scanner hand and preparing for next year's contest. Will he be able to topple the reigning three-time champion? Maybe it will be YOU who topples him, or will Aeroc continue his domination? Only time will tell.

So what does Aeroc win? Well, he wins the usual $60 of gaming swag of his choice and this sweet RFG Ringer-T:

For the rest of you that attempted this great challenge, I know some of you fought hard and some of you didn't even realize you were competing. But I thank you for your work regardless of how many points you scored, every little bit really does help make the site better.

Once again, I'd like to thank and congratulate everyone who participated this year. Without a solid community like you guys willing to submit like crazy we would never have been able to become THE Classic and Modern Video Games Database. But don't forget that you don't need to wait for the contest, we're happy to accept your submissions all year long! KEEP IT ON CHANNEL 3!

Today marks the 8th anniversary of when RFGeneration officially went online for the public to use. This is always a big deal here at RFGeneration, every year of existing is a true accomplishment with a site of this size that has no sponsors, ads or any kind of user fees. To make it 8 years in the tough world of online video game databases is truly a testament to our founders' visions and our members' dedication. This accomplishment couldn't have happened without the help of everyone involved with RFGen over the last 8 years. And to thank you all for helping with RFGen, we hold a contest every year where we challenge you to PAIN YOURSELF WITH SUBMISSIONS! There can only be one winner, one person who goes above and beyond everyone else and submits so much to the database that it causes them pain, whether physical pain of sore wrists or emotional pain of trying to beat everyone else competing in the contest. And this year was no different, for the past 5 weeks or so, many people have been vying for the prize, and I know it has caused actual physical pain for at least one person. But will it be enough? The competition was fierce this year, we broke submission records, and even had over 5000 more submissions in May this year than we did last year. At this point it could be anyone's game, you'll just have to wait until we can get the points tallied up. So keep it tuned to Channel 3 for the next couple days so you'll be the first to know who won this year's contest.

RF Generation is turning 8, isn't that great?! For 8 years, we've been working to create an amazing database of games and a swell community. I think we've definitely accomplished that. Our database includes both games and hardware, something most other sites out there simply do not. We have over 80,000 scans, all unique to us and not seen anywhere else on the web. We have over 60,000 games listed and almost 5000 pieces of hardware. Our community is so close knit that it often feels more like a large family spread throughout the world than a gaming forum. So yeah, I think we've spent our 8 years on the Internet pretty well. But none of this would have been possible with you, our dedicated members who have spent countless hours scanning, editing, and researching to do your part to make our little site even better.

So thanks to each of you that have contributed over these last 8 years. And in order to show how much we appreciate all your efforts, we're giving away a fantastic prize! Now that it is officially the 8th birthday of RF Generation, the Pain Yourself With Submissions contest has officially begun! So get out there, and do whatever you can to help make our site better and you could walk away with a great prize!

Here at RF Generation, we appreciate all the work each and every one of you does, we really do. Its all that volunteer work that makes this place the treasure that it is. So, as a token of our appreciation, we like to hold a contest every year for you guys. I'm sure by now, our veterans are very familiar with it, but for those of you that have joined within the last year, let me introduce you to the PAIN YOURSELF WITH SUBMISSIONS Contest.

Essentially, the contest boils down to this: Be active on the site and you get points, the person with the most points wins! Sounds simple right? It is, but there are a few more things you need to know to fully understand how it will work.

First off, keep in mind while this contest may not be easy to win (last year's winner had well over 3000 submissions), any little bit you can do to contribute is appreciated. And we've tweaked the point system from last year, so hopefully the contest will be a bit more unpredictable to give more people a fair shot at winning.

*Regarding the asterisk: For page edits, if it is noticed that you are consistently only adding one field per edit multiple times for a single ID just to up your points, you will be disqualified. Any review or overview completed will count as a page edit as well the points for an overview or review. To get the points for an overview or review you MUST contact me via Personal Message so that I can keep a tally. In addition, the review or overview must be on the actual game / hardware page. A review or overview of poor quality could result in less points than stated being granted. The same statement holds true for blog posts.

Regarding Forum Karma: Because we want the forum to be a lively place of fun and interesting posts, we're enabling Karma during this contest. Karma rewards members that make good posts and smites those who do not. Your Karma will play a wildcard role in posts. Positive Karma at the end of the contest will increase your point total by a factor, while negative karma will decrease it.

As with any contest, there is fine print. Any submission that you make must adhere to the RF Generation Policies and Guidelines. We wrote these policies and guidelines for a reason, and well, we’d like everyone to adhere to them. Failure to adhere to the guidelines could result in a disqualification.

Any point reduction or disqualification can be contested. In the event that you wish to contest, you must explain why the reduction or disqualification is unfair. If you win the contest, we’ll restore your greatness, but if you lose, you shall be pelted with figurative rocks and garbage.

Everyone, except for the directors of this site, is in this contest. Because staff members get that extra point for each submission review, and those staff members will have thousands of submissions to review in addition to their own submissions, their total score will be halved to make things a bit more fair and lively.

So now that you know all the rules and have the scanner warming up, you probably want to know what you can win. Well, don't worry, its quite a substantial prize. The winner will receive their choice of gaming swag (not to exceed $60) plus an official RF Generation Ringer T-shirt!

The contest will start on April 28th, at midnight and will come to and end on June 8th. So get your stuff ready, the contest will start soon.

It was seven years ago today that a group of wonderful people put this site on the Internet for everyone across the world to use. While a lot has changed in the past seven years, I bet we have more variations now than there were total game entries when the site first launched, the mission of the site has not changed. We're here to serve YOU, the community, this is your database. The site may have been started by Michael Collins, Eddie Herrmann, Mark Hartholt, Laurel Settee, Mike Leon, and Rick Kuethe, but its been you guys and every member for the past seven years that has made this website what it is today.

And to celebrate everyone who has made this site so awesome, we have a contest every year that starts on April 28th and ends today, June 8th. During this contest, we challenge you guys to PAIN YOURSELF WITH SUBMISSIONS and submit as much as you possibly can in an all out war against empty game pages.

And boy, did you guys answer the call this year! 8,622 images alone were added to the database. Imagine if those images were printed out as 4" x 6" prints and laid side by side, they'd stretch out over 0.8 miles. There were also more than a thousand entries added to the DB, and almost 2000 entries were edited. All this in just over a month, its truly astounding.

Now, there is the matter of announcing a winner to this contest. Is the winner blcklblskt who added over 200 entries? Or was it Shadow Kisuragi who made over 800 page edits? Maybe it was Izret101 who approved nearly 4500 submissions? Perhaps it was Crabmaster2000 for making 43 blog comments? Even though these gentlemen all kicked butt in those categories, it was actually Aeroc who won it all! During the contest, he added more than 3500 images which when combined with his other contributions, earned him 53,543 points.

To round out the top ten points gainers, we have

blcklblskt with 30,406 points

Necron99 with 10,958 points

y2richie with 10,737 points

Crabmaster2000 with 9,553 points

Shadow Kisuragi with 6,821 points

Izret101 with 4,742 points

raffa1985 with 4,311 points

ixtaileddemonfox with 3,529 points

douglie007 with 2,547 points

Congratulations Aeroc! You're now the winner two years in a row! You'll be receiving a PM shortly regarding your prize.

As for the rest of you, thank you for participating, you all did an excellent job and really gave Aeroc a run for the contest this year. He only had 21,000 points last year, so the competition was much stiffer this year! Let's keep that spirit going the rest of the year, and make RF Generation's 7th year the best one yet!

RFGeneration is getting old, seven years old in fact. That's right, way back in 2004 this fantastic site was founded. And while a lot has changed in these seven years, one thing has remained the same - its all about YOU, the members. Without all of you, we would be nothing and our database would just be an empty desolate place.

So, as a token of our appreciation, we like to have a little huge contest for you guys. We call it the "Pain Yourself with Submissions" contest, because to win the fantastic prize, you'll have to pain yourself with submissions. It wouldn't be any fun if it wasn't challenging.

Of course, this contest has some rules. Basically, you win the contest by submitting and being active in the community. Just about everything you do on the site will garner you points, the member with the most points at the end of the contest wins!This is how the points will be gained:

*Regarding the asterisk: For page edits, if it is noticed that you are consistently only adding one field per edit multiple times for a single ID just to up your points, you will be disqualified. Any review or overview completed will count as a page edit as well the points for an overview or review. To get the points for an overview or review you MUST contact me via Personal Message so that I can keep a tally. In addition, the review or overview must be on the actual game / hardware page. A review or overview of poor quality could result in less points than stated being granted. The same statement holds true for blog posts.

Because we want the forum to be a lively place of fun and interesting posts, we're enabling Karma during this contest. Karma rewards members that make good posts and smites those who do not. Your Karma will play a wildcard role in posts. Positive Karma at the end of the contest will increase your point total by a factor, while negative karma will decrease it.

As with any contest, there is fine print. Any submission that you make must adhere to the RF Generation guidelines / policies. We wrote these policies and guidelines for a reason, and well, we'd like everyone to adhere to them. Failure to adhere to the guidelines could result in a disqualification.

Any point reduction or disqualification can be contested. In the event that you wish to contest, you must explain why the reduction or disqualification is unfair. If you win the contest, we’ll restore your greatness, but if you lose, you shall be pelted with figurative rocks and garbage.

**KICKER! Everyone, except for the directors of this site, is in this contest. There is a catch though for staff members… their final score will be halved. So, that should lead to a lively competition. I think halving their scores is fair, and I hope you do as well. Oh yeah, there is that 1 point for a submission review, that unfortunately only applies to staff members because they are the poor souls who must review your submissions.

What do you win? Well, we're a poor bunch here at RF Generation, but we've got a lovely prize for the top winner:

Gaming swag not to exceed $60 and an RF Generation Ringer T***

If you want to win, you better get to it, the contest ends at MIDNIGHT, JUNE 8th, 2011 (Wednesday 12:00AM Eastern). And it started when this blog post was posted, so you've already missed at least a few minutes.

Can you believe it? 6 years old. A lot has changed in six years. In just six years we've grown to a massive database with over 52,000 games and 84,000 images. Between our 1664 collectors, we own nearly half a million games. We couldn't have gotten here without you, our loyal members. Through the years, you guys have made hundreds of thousands of submissions and edits to make our database, THE classic and modern video game database!

To celebrate our 6th birthday and all your hard work, I'd like to announce PAIN YOURSELF WITH SUBMISSIONS CONTEST 2010! This isn't an easy contest, that wouldn't be any fun. To win, you'll literally have to pain yourself with submissions. Last year's winner had over 3000 submissions in May alone. But don't let that discourage you from attempting the contest. Everyone has a chance to win!

Of course, this contest has some rules. Basically, you win the contest by submitting and being active in the community. Just about everything you do on the site will garner you points, the member with the most points at the end of the contest wins!This is how the points will be gained:

*Regarding the asterisk: For page edits, if it is noticed that you are consistently only adding one field per edit multiple times for a single ID just to up your points, you will be disqualified. Any review or overview completed will count as a page edit as well the points for an overview or review. To get the points for an overview or review you MUST contact me via Personal Message so that I can keep a tally. In addition, the review or overview must be on the actual game / hardware page. A review or overview of poor quality could result in less points than stated being granted. The same statement holds true for blog posts.

Because we want the forum to be a lively place of fun and interesting posts, we're enabling Karma during this contest. Karma rewards members that make good posts and smites those who do not. Your Karma will play a wildcard role in posts. Positive Karma at the end of the contest will increase your point total by a factor, while negative karma will decrease it.

As with any contest, there is fine print. Any submission that you make must adhere to the RF Generation guidelines / policies. We wrote these policies and guidelines for a reason, and well, we’d like everyone to adhere to them. Failure to adhere to the guidelines could result in a disqualification.

Any point reduction or disqualification can be contested. In the event that you wish to contest, you must explain why the reduction or disqualification is unfair. If you win the contest, we’ll restore your greatness, but if you lose, you shall be pelted with figurative rocks and garbage.

**KICKER! Everyone, except for the directors of this site, is in this contest. There is a catch though for staff members… their final score will be halved. So, that should lead to a lively competition. I think halving their scores is fair, and I hope you do as well. Oh yeah, there is that 1 point for a submission review, that unfortunately only applies to staff members because they are the poor souls who must review your submissions.

What do you win? Well, we’re a poor bunch here at RF Generation, especially since we're on a dedicated box, but we've got a lovely prize for the top winner:

Gaming swag not to exceed $60 and an RF Generation Ringer T***

And new for this year, a special prize! The top 5% of points gainers (minus the top winner***) will be entered into a special drawing to win a piece of my personal collection! The drawing will be a completely random reverse drawing to determine the winner of at least one prize package.***The top winner of the contest can choose to decline their prize listed above in exchange for not one, but two entries into the drawing.

If you want to win, you better get to it, the contest ends at MIDNIGHT, JUNE 8th, 2010. (Tuesday 12:00AM)

You know what? Five years on April 28 we came into being. Five years ago seems like such a long time ago, but it's true. We're really five years old. Are we getting up in age? You tell me.

A lot has changed in those five years, lots for the good, and some for the not so good. Whatever the ups and downs though, the truth is that we're still here and we're still going strong, thanks to people like you. Without you guys we'd be nothing, and for that we're truly grateful.

You know, with our birthday we like to do contests. This year is no different. As for what the contest is... why, it's the PAIN YOURSELF WITH SUBMISSIONS AGAIN CONTEST. We're evil, we really are, and we like to see you work for your spoils. Want to play? Here are the rules:

Submissions, they make the site go round. We just don’t grow if we do not have anyone submit stuff. Funny how that works, and well, we do have one heck of a community that loves to do submissions. Perhaps, with this contest, you’ll be interested in doing submissions as well. Submissions will garner you points, and these how are they are ranked:

*Regarding the asterisk: For page edits, it is noticed that you are consistently only adding one field per edit multiple times for a single ID just to up your points, you will be disqualified. Any review or overview completed will count as a page edit as well the points for an overview or review. To get the points for an overview or review you MUST contact me via Personal Message so that I can keep a tally. In addition, the review or overview must be on the actual game / hardware page. A review or overview of poor quality could result in less points than stated being granted. The same statement holds true for blog posts.

Because we want the forum to be a lively place of fun and interesting posts, we're enabling Karma during this contest. Karma rewards members that make good posts and smites those who do not. Your Karma will play a wildcard role in posts. Positive Karma at the end of the contest will increase your point total by a factor, while negative karma will decrease it. The equation used to decide how karma affects your points will be announced at a later date before the end of the contest.

As with any contest, there is fine print. Any submission that you make must adhere to the RF Generation guidelines / policies. We wrote these policies and guidelines for a reason, and well, we’d like everyone to adhere to them. Failure to adhere to the guidelines could result in a disqualification.

Any point reduction or disqualification can be contested. In the event that you wish to contest, you must explain why the reduction or disqualification is unfair. If you win the contest, we’ll restore your greatness, but if you lose, you shall be pelted with figurative rocks and garbage.

**KICKER! Everyone, except for the directors of this site, is in this contest. There is a catch though for staff members… their final score will be halved. So, that should lead to a lively competition. I think halving their scores is fair, and I hope you do as well. Oh yeah, there is that 1 point for a submission review, that unfortunately only applies to staff members because they are the poor souls who must review your submissions.

What do you win? Well, we’re a poor bunch here at RF Generation, especially since we're on a dedicated box, but we've got a lovely prize for the top winner:

Gaming swag not to exceed $60 and an RF Generation Ringer T.

Also, anyone in the top 5% of points gainers shall get some sort of recognition, to be determined later.

So, won't you get started? The contest starts as of 20 hours ago (midnight last night). When does it end? It ends at MIDNIGHT, JUNE 8th, 2009. (Sunday 12:00AM) So, what are you waiting for? Have your cake and eat it too! Good luck!

Three years for the 360! On November 22, 2005 the Xbox 360 was released in North America to a gaming mass waiting for the next iteration of Microsoft’s gaming console. Unlike its predecessor, the 360 was a stylish system that when it wasn’t greeting players with a red ring was rather sexy when compared to the black paperweight known as the Xbox. Surely, Microsoft was off to a better start from a design point with its system, and there were plenty of other things for 360 fans to be excited about.

I’d be lying if I told you I owned a 360 or desired one. The truth is that I have no desire for a 360. That said, the 360 does have several things that go great for the masses. If you were to ask me which system appeals most to true gamers right now, it sure as hell would not be the Wii. It depends on the avenue, but if you’re looking for games for adults that will make you say wow then the 360 is the system to have. From Halo to Dead Rising to Bioshock to GTA IV, there have been some heavy hitters for the 360 that would make the most hardcore gamers squeal with delight.

Of course, that’s not the only thing that appeals to true gamers. Of the three console manufacturers, Microsoft really does know how to best do an online product. Sony’s working on creating a good online product and Nintendo is being Nintendo, and while the bar has been set rather low by the competitors Microsoft has delivered a product that quite frankly trounces the competition. It’s really quite amazing and I give Microsoft kudos for their online platform. Their competitors could learn a thing or two from Live... they really could… especially Nintendo.

Of course, Microsoft is not the market leader anymore this generation. While they were in the beginning, the behemoth known as the Wii has taken the title and ran with it. Is Microsoft going to sit there and just watch that happen? No! They decided they were going to revamp their dashboard and create a new experience that is enjoyable for all. It just launched, and as someone on the outside looking in I have to say that the avatars do look really cool. They offer customization that I only wish Nintendo had for their Miis. Did Rare rip off the Mii concept? Who the hell cares! Rare has created something with much more depth than the Miis of Nintendo, and I give them full credit for creating something much more interesting than the Mii Channel. Good job Microsoft and keep pushing along with the new experience.

Every console has its fair share of issues, and the same can definitely be said for the 360. Probably the most notable of these issues was the Curse of the Red Ring. Chances are you know someone who has suffered from the Red Ring of Death. In fact, you might know someone who has suffered from it multiple times. Truth be told, the initial batches of the 360 had some design issues. No one really knows what is it, but rather than screwing over consumers, Microsoft did a noble thing and extended everyone’s warranties. That’s pretty nice, and it suggests that perhaps Microsoft is not the cold hearted bastard that its Windows operation suggests that it is (and it is).

So sales have been down in recent history for the 360, and one has to wonder what the future holds for the console. I honestly don’t know if the console will see a rebound in sales, but I don’t know if that is necessarily a bad thing. 360 owners like to buy third party titles, so it’s an enticing console for those developers and publishers. So for developers, I don’t see as much as a risk for releasing games on the 360 that I do for releasing non casual games on the Wii. While casual gaming dominates the Wii, real games dominate the 360, and that’s a great selling point for the console. Why not capitalize on that, Microsoft? Push your strengths, and it might help you in the long run.

Three years for the 360. What do you think has been the good, the bad, and the ugly? What do you think the future holds for the 360? Does the four year lifespan still hold true for Microsoft? Well, in a year we might just know. What do you think?

Two years, has it been that long? I guess it has been. Two years ago today the Wii was released worldwide, because Nintendo loves you… or so we thought. What has the last two years brought Nintendo and it’s Wii? Let’s delve into the past, and see where the future lies for Nintendo.

Nintendo had a cool concept. Motion control in a game, would it be a gimmick or a novel innovation? Well, two years has passed, and honestly, the verdict is still out. There are the games that just tack it on, such as Super Monkey Ball did. Did they even play test their game? Super Monkey Ball should have been great on the Wii. Alas, it was not. Fortunately, there have been games that do make excellent use of the Wii Remote, and these games shine amongst the games that treat motion control like an afterthought. Games like No More Heroes, De Blob, Zack and Wiki, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption all make excellent use of the Wii Remote. Super Mario Galaxy was a refreshing reinvention of the platform genre. Truly there are the gems in what seems more and more like an endless pile of crap, and my, there is crap.

Why is there crap? Well, it might be because the Wii sells like hotcakes from McDonalds. It sold almost 850,000 units in North America alone last month, and quite frankly that’s impressive. It’s enough to make the Wii the clear market leader, and we’ll talk about that later. But now, let’s talk about the effects of being the market leader. See, being number one tends to bring a lot of crap to your console. Games like Target: Terror. What is that game like? Well, you know what Lethal Enforcers is, right? Well, it looks just like that, except with Terrorists. How novel for the Wii, especially when it could probably run on an N64. Great job there, Konami, you really must have been bitter after the sales of Elebits and Dewy’s Adventure. I bought Elebits! Don’t hate me! And don’t think that it’s just the third parties giving us steaming piles of shit. I see that the fourth worst ranked Wii game on Gamerankings is Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast. Now, I am sure that game is full of win, but the score speaks for the masses. And don’t forget about Wii Music! Is that even a game? You decide.

If you would have told me with a straight face that the Wii would be far and beyond the market leader right now prior to its launch I would have laughed. I was a Nintendo fanboy at one point, but just because I was a fanboy does not mean that I am not a realist. C’mon, Nintendo had a good idea, but was there really something as a casual gamer? I sure as hell didn’t think so. I guess I was wrong, because as they say… it prints money. Unfortunately, it only prints money really for Nintendo. See, the Wii third party tie-in ratio is rather poor. It seems as though the real winner in all this is Nintendo and the companies that realize shovelware. It’s sort of sad because it limits creativity. Why be creative when you can make money with a low budget piece of crap? It’s sad, and it’s true.

Well, the future, what does it hold? Being on top means that Nintendo has the most to lose. It’s quite obvious that Nintendo cares most about the casual gamer these days, and it hurts. Nintendo really, really needs to either invest in games for gamers or encourage third parties to innovate rather than defecate. Maybe it could, you know, do both? Who knows, really? I certainly hope they do, because to a certain extent Nintendo has really tried to see what the breaking point of their fanboys is. Maybe to them that’s okay, but they have to realize that you can have your hardcore faithful in addition to being super trendy. Apple does it, somehow. Isn’t that who Nintendo is trying to emulate anyways? Does that mean that we’ll soon see a super thin Iwata in jeans and a black shirt with a goatee? God I hope so. The truth is though that Nintendo needs to know that some of Nintendo’s biggest fans are becoming some very bitter people, and bitter people can bring some very negative press. Best then to keep the fans happy, I suppose. Might you start with localizing Captain Rainbow and Mother 3? Please? PLEASE?

Nintendo’s console will probably have a bright future. I know I am personally as giddy as a schoolgirl for No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle and Mad World. I guess you could say I’ve become a person to enjoy violence more as I’ve gotten older. I also know that in the future I’ll probably own a PS3 to satisfy other needs. But don’t you worry Nintendo, because you’ve already made more than enough money off of me, and chances are you’ll make more than enough money off of others. Congrats on that.

Well, what do you think? Where has Nintendo been over the last two years for you? Where will they be in the future? I know where I think they’ll be, but it’s always more interesting to find out where you guys think the future lies, so tell us, won’t you?

Four years, has it really been that long? Wow… April 28, 2004 does and does not at the same feel far away. Needless to say, we at RF Generation have weathered the long storm, and we’re not four years old. Look at how we’ve grown. From just a few members to 1700 members, from a couple thousand games to over 35000 games, from no hardware records to over 2000 hardware records, etc… the site has sure grown. Certainly, we’re proud of how our little slice of the internet has grown, and we wish for it to grow for years to come.

It’s been a long time since we’ve sent out one of these newsletters. I intended on sending one out every year on April 28, but our previous host suspended our account when someone flagged our newsletter as spam. It’s cool though, we’re still here, and no hard feelings. Haven’t been around for a while? Let me clue you in to some of the things that have happened since I’ve last sent one of these out:

Hardware Database: What? A hardware database? That’s right, RF Generation now has a hardware database. It’s a lovely thing, and you can even add hardware records to your collection. Of course, the new database is always hungry… hungry for more submissions! So, if hardware is your thing, than boy do we have a database for you.

Submission Script: The Submit Missing Games Here Thread is Dead! Long live the Submit Missing Games Here Thread. Seriously though, most every submission is handled through this lovely submission script, which has been recoded in the last two years about 4 times. It’s amazing what one can do when they learn more PHP. Games or hardware released in only certain countries of a region… we can add those. Game ratings… we can add those. Easy variation additions… we can add those. Certainly, our little submission script has turned into one complex monster.

Site Redesign: Last year on June 8, we rolled out our new site layout. I must say, it looks rather nice, and well, I do enjoy the fact that we’re using CSS to the fullest extent now. With the site redesign came an about section for our site as well as a (still yet to be fully realized) features section. Also, we redid the front page news script so that it behaves a bit more like a blog script would. (read: you can be selective with what you read and comment on news stories)

Community Blogs: Some of you may find this idea reprehensible. Others may find it cool, but if you want you can make a blog at RF Generation. Don’t like the idea of calling it a blog, call it then your collection find log. Or, just stick to the other areas of the site.

True Image Search: We switched to being mySQL driven in the last two years. Oh… yeah, I didn’t mention that, but we did. We had a true image search before the mySQL switch, but it went away once we moved to mySQL. Well, after a lot of coding, it’s back, and better than ever.

Countless Collection Script Improvements: Have an idea for the collection script? Chances are that the Black Perl will in fact listen to your request and add it into the script. It’s happened so many times in the past two years that well, I just can’t name them all. Did you know you could have a banner showing off your collection stats? How about being able to set a specific folder to being an “owned” folder or “for sale” folder? These things are just a few of many additions to your collecting needs.

So yeah, that’s a not so short list of things we’ve added in the last two years. Still reading? Good, I was afraid that we may have lost you. So, today marks our fourth birthday. To celebrate, we’re having a contest! It involves being the best submitter possible, and to learn more about this contest… well, I guess that you’ll have to visit the site for more information. Did I mention that there was swag to be won for first through third place in our contest? It’s true. SWAG! MUST PLAY! Good luck to those who decide to go all out in our little contest.

Four years. Now is the time to celebrate! Eat! Drink! Be Merry! May RF Generation have many more years of happiness. We only hope that you all continue to be a part of our community and come along for the ride. After all, there’s always more to come when you put it on channel three.

This year, we turn 4, and well, being four means that we’re still in our toddler years, and as a toddler one may say that we can be quite the terror. You love us, right? You want free stuff, right? Good, because once a year we like giving crap away. Good deal, isn’t it? I think so. So, what is it that you need to do? Here’s the rules of the contest:

Submissions, they make the site go round. We just don’t grow if we do not have anyone submit stuff. Funny how that works, and well, we do have one heck of a community that loves to do submissions. Perhaps, with this contest, you’ll be interested in doing submissions as well. Submissions will garner you points, and these how are they are ranked:

*Regarding the asterisk: For page edits, it is noticed that you are consistently only adding one field per edit multiple times for a single ID just to up your points, you will be disqualified. Any review or overview completed will count as a page edit as well the points for an overview or review. To get the points for an overview or review you MUST contact me via Personal Message so that I can keep a tally. A review or overview of poor quality could result in less points than stated being granted. The same statement holds true for blog posts.

Because we want the forum to be a lively place of fun and interesting posts, we’re enabling Karma during this contest. Karma rewards members that make good posts and smites those who do not. Your Karma will play a wildcard role in posts. Positive Karma at the end of the contest will increase your point total by a factor, while negative karma will decrease it. The equation used to decide how karma affects your points will be announced at a later date before the end of the contest.

As with any contest, there is fine print. Any submission that you make must adhere to the RF Generation guidelines / policies. We wrote these policies and guidelines for a reason, and well, we’d like everyone to adhere to them. Failure to adhere to the guidelines could result in a disqualification.

Any point reduction or disqualification can be contested. In the event that you wish to contest, you must explain why the reduction or disqualification is unfair. If you win the contest, we’ll restore your greatness, but if you lose, you shall be pelted with figurative rocks and garbage.

**KICKER! Normally, staff members could not be involved in these contests. That is no longer the case! Everyone, except for the directors of this site, is in this contest. There is a catch though for staff members… their final score will be halved. So, that should lead to a lively competition. I think halving their scores is fair, and I hope you do as well. Oh yeah, there is that 1 point for a submission review, that unfortunately only applies to staff members because they are the poor souls who must review your submissions.

What do you win? Well, we’re a poor bunch here at RF Generation, especially after the server move. That said, there are prizes for the first, second, and third place winners!

FIRST PLACE: Gaming swag not to exceed $100 and also a groovy RF Generation ringer T.

SECOND PLACE: Gaming swag not to exceed $25 and also a groovy RF Generation ringer T.

THIRD PLACE: A groovy RF Generation ringer T

Also, anyone in the top 5% of points gainers shall get some sort of recognition, to be determined later.

So when does this contest start? TODAY, APRIL 28, 2008. When does this contest end? SUNDAY, JUNE 8, 2008 AT MIDNIGHT (late Saturday night). So have your cake and eat it too! Happy submitting!